Fehér György szerk.: A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum Közleményei 1995-1997 (Budapest, 1998)
PÁLÓCZI HORVÁTH ANDRÁS-SZŐKE MÁTYÁS: A visegrádi királyi palota középkori kertjeinek kutatási programja
Research program of the Medieval Royal Palace-Garden at Visegrád A. PÁLÓCZI HORVÁTH-M. SZŐKE One of the most important historical monuments of Hungary can be found at Visegrád. Excavations have been conducted since 1934 at the 14-15th century Royal Palace, which was the seat of die Royal Court from 1323 up to the beginning of the 15th century, afterwards it became the summer residence of the Hungarian king and queen. The largest constructions were made during the reign of King Sigismund of Luxembourgh (1387-1437) and King Matthias (1458-1490). The contemporaries mentioned Matthias' palace and hanging-gardens with admiration. Under the Turkish rule, from the middle of the 16th century, the palace gradually became desolated. Our excavations went on between 1993 and 1996 in the fruit-garden and vineyard adjoining the Royal Palace from the North, covering approx. 5000 m 2 . Leaders of the excavation in the medieval palace-garden were: Mátyás Szőke museum director (Museum "King Matthias", Visegrád) and András Pálóczi-Horváth archaeologist (Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, Budapest). This is the first Medieval garden excavation in Hungary - from the start carried out with environmental archaeological methods. Before the excavation a geophysical survey was made by Miklós Pattantyús-Á. (Eötvös Loránd Geophysical Institute of Hungary). The geophysical map shows the anomalies of the soil and the characteristics of its stratification. The features signed on the map were systematicly looked for on the site. The Royal Fruit-garden was created together with the first phase of the palace by King Charles Robert Angevin in the 1320-ies on the suburbium which belonged to the Royal Castle. King Sigismund turned part of the garden into a formal garden: waterpipes, fountain and well were built. At this time the garden had a late gothic style. King Matthias had further developments in the garden, he added some terraces, renovated the fruit-garden and built a wine cellar to the vineyard (1479). The surface of the Medieval Garden is intact under the modern fill, since the area of the former fruit garden remained unbuilt. The different layers could be identified by the different building phases of the palace, the structure of the layers and that of the ground-plan could be observed on a relatively large area. Most of the biological assemblages came to light from the Sigismund-period by watersieving. 52 species were identified by archaeobotanist Andrea Torma (Museum of Hungarian Agriculture) of which 11 were that of fruits. Through xylotomical investigations Károly Babos (ELTE University) determined 9 species of tree and vine. According to the definition of archaeozoologist Tamás Somhegyi (Museum of Hungarian Agriculture) , the bone material found on the territory of the garden is characteristic of the eating custom of the Royal Court. It is necessery to make a comparative study of the bonematerial of the Royal Palace, Royal Castie and Franciscain friary. Landscape architectural plans are made using the above mentioned results. A new research project started in 1997. The reconstruction will be ready in 2000 and the garden will be opened for the public.
